What's behind uneven exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners?
Hamas released three Israeli women held in Gaza on Sunday, while Israel was expected to release 90 Palestinian women and minors held in its prisons later in the day.
Budget with ET
What India Inc needs in Budget to drive growth amid global challenges
Budget 2025-26 needs to focus on capex, infrastructure spending: RBI MPC member Nagesh Kumar
Space sector seeks PLI scheme, tax holidays, more use of satellite data
Further exchanges will probably follow a similar formula, with tens of Palestinians freed from prisons in Israel for each hostage held in the Gaza Strip by militants. Over the six-week first phase of the truce, Hamas is expected to release 33 captives and Israel is slated to free about 1,900 Palestinians.
Such an uneven swap is not unusual. Israeli governments have long been determined to bring back captured civilians and soldiers, including dead ones, even at steep costs. The terms of such trades have often prompted fierce criticism domestically, much as a hostage release deal in November 2023 — part of an earlier ceasefire — did within Israel's governing coalition.
The exchange of civilian hostages for prisoners, including some whom Israel has accused of terrorism, has also raised the ire of some Israelis. In a statement celebrating the release of the three Israeli hostages Sunday, an Israeli military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, hinted at some of that underlying frustration, saying the latest trade was not «a true like-for-like exchange.»
Two of the women were abducted from their homes and one
